Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to allow Tokyo to come to the aid of an ally under attack will pave the way for closer cooperation between US and Japanese forces across Asia, a top US commander said yesterday.
Expanded training and joint missions could extend from Japan through the disputed South China Sea — claimed in whole or part by Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations — into the Indian Ocean.
Neither the US nor Japan have territorial claims in the South China Sea, but the US Seventh Fleet operates in the area.
Abe’s government plans to submit bills to parliament in coming months to ratify his Cabinet’s decision last year to allow Japan to exercise its right of collective self-defense (CSD). Abe’s coalition enjoys a big majority in parliament.
“CSD makes it easier for the Seventh Fleet and JMSDF [Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force] to exercise and operate across the Indo Asia Pacific,” Admiral Robert Thomas, commander of the force said aboard his command ship, the USS Blue Ridge, in Yokohama.
The Japanese “have the capacity and capability for operations in international waters and international airspace anywhere on the globe,” he told a media briefing with Admiral Eiichi Funada, commander of the JMSDF.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) told a daily news briefing in Beijing that the Japan-US alliance “should not exceed its bilateral scope and nor should it harm the security of interests of countries in the region.”
Japan and the US have said they will decide by the end of June on a new set of guidelines for their decades-old alliance that will give Japan a more prominent role.
Meanwhile, US Pacific Fleet Commander Harry Harris yesterday told a conference in Canberra that China’s creation of more than 4km2 of artificial islands in the South China Sea is increasing tensions with the US and its allies.
“What’s really drawing a lot of concern in the here and now is the unprecedented land reclamation currently being conducted by China,” Harris said. “China is building artificial land by pumping sand on to live coral reefs — some of them submerged — and paving over them with concrete.”
“How China proceeds will be a key indicator of whether the region is heading towards confrontation or cooperation,” he said.
While Harris said he was hopeful that China would contribute to stability in the Asia-Pacific region, he added: “hope is not a strategy.”
“We also continue to constructively engage China, exploring new confidence building measures,” Harris said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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